


Persona: Time Paradox

by makotoyuki123



Series: Time Paradox [1]
Category: Persona 3, Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Akira rambles a lot in his mind, Exclusive SMT Demons and Skills are here, F/M, M/M, Multi, Time Travel Fix-It, Wild Cards are bros
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-26
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:54:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 17,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21569497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/makotoyuki123/pseuds/makotoyuki123
Summary: The Trickter's Trial is over, but Akira is tasked with a new mission: Prevent the death of Messiah. (AU). Akira in P3 and P4.
Relationships: Undecided for now
Series: Time Paradox [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1554487
Comments: 9
Kudos: 118





	1. Teaser

**Author's Note:**

> I am posting this work from FF.net to AO3 gradually while writing the latest chapter so stay tune!

"Oh, you are a transfer student like me too? Akira Kurusu, nice to meet you."

"…Minato Arisato, likewise."

…..

"Hmm, a gun eh. I wonder if I bring my own too…"

"Stop it, dude. You will scare the shit out of her at this rate."

…..

"That guy looks suspicious don't you think, Minato?"

"Don't care."

…..

**Go on…Do it….**

"Per…so…NA!"

"He has one as well?!"

…..

**Heed my call, Trickster!**

"DEMIURGE!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone destroyed the peace Akira and co has fought tooth and nail to create. He has no choice but to go on the journey to prevent it from the first place

"!"

Akira's chest felt like it was set ablaze and his eyes snapped open. The familiar calming blue ceiling greeted him.

"Ow, my head…" Akira felt a sharp pain in his head as he stood up and exited his formerly jail-turned-luxury room. Outside, Igor and Lavenza were awaiting him with their gentle smiles. The short Assistant bowed at him before stepping aside to make way for him.

"Welcome back, my dear Trickster." She told him with a well-hidden loving tone. Akira smiled; she had confessed her feelings to him prior to his confrontation with Yaldabaoth and he sort of returned it. He was fine with Lavenza though, but when he snapped out of his fantasy and looked at reality: she looked like a freaking child, for Christ's sake! She looked even younger than Futaba! He was in fear of being busted by the police when she expressed her desire to have a tour outside with him. Oh wait, he was in a literal jail now so…

"H-Hey Lavenza, long time no see. You too, Igor." The old Owner of Velvet Room nodded at him. "Err, you doing alright?"

"Fufu, thank you for your concern, Akira-kun." Lavenza giggled at him; having adapted to use Japanese honorifics. "I and Igor-sama are well. I believe you're the same?"

"Had some problems back home but other than that, I'm fine. But calling me here sure isn't for greeting and stuff right?"

Igor and Lavenza dropped their carefree attitudes at this as the latter walked to her Master and stood there solemnly. Igor rested his head on his hands, the sign of his being serious, and talked.

"I need you to stay calm and listen to me, Master Akira." Igor sighed. "We are in need of you again. A new ordeal has emerged and the world is in the brink of ruin."

Akira stood there, not moving an inch, and frowned.

"Within the next 48 hours, everything will disappear as the flow of time has been disrupted. As you can see…"

Igor explained the previous events that almost led to the world's destruction in the past and the culprits: Nyx (Erebus was the true perpetrator), Izanami-no-Okami and her underlings.

"Thanks to you predecessors, they were stopped. Now, a malevolent entity has put everything in chaos by killing the Great Seal containing Nyx and the incarnation of Izanagi, thus letting the Goddesses to enact their plans. And due to its inferring to the flow of time, the world we are in begins to disappear and will be replaced by the wastelands caused by them."

Akira was barely restraining himself from screaming out in rage. His Persona, Satanael, agreed with him as a fracture of it materialized behind Akira.

"…Can you identify who or what this bastard is?" Akira asked, or more like, demanded.

"Why yes, I believe this entity is called 'Mahakala', the God of Eternal Death and a close associate to the God of Control." Igor answered him with sincere in his voice. Akira faked rubbing his eyes to hide his leaking fury. Why everything bad must be related to that piece of shit?! Satanael's low growl was enough to express his agreement.

"Have I informed you of Master Philemon?" Igor asked as he received a curl nod from Akira. "He and I have discussed and reached the solution: you must travel back in time. To be specific, you will be sent to April 7 in 2009, where everything begins."

Igor gestured to Lavenza as she showed him the Persona Compendium and a large box. "For unclear reasons, some of your Personas have disappeared from the Compendium and fortunately, major of them are still here. Your previous equipment and money are in here." She gave him the box. He opened it and smirked at the sight of his trusty dagger, gun and other equipment. He excused and went to his ‘jail’ to put them on. Conveniently enough, when he finished putting the helmet, armor, gauntlets and leg protection, they disappeared. He still felt the comfortable safeness coming from the gears, though.

"Okay, I am done."

Akira said as he returned to Igor and Lavenza, Paradise's Lost strapped to his waist and Tyrant Pistol in his coat. The residents of Velvet Room smiled at their guest’s swiftness; as expected of the Leader of Phantom Thieves. Igor nodded solemnly at Lavenza as the attendant guided Akira to the big door at the corner. He turned to her and showed her his charming grin.

"What? No parting gift?"

Lavenza blushed before pulling Akira closer and planted a passionate kiss on his lips. Akira's eyes widened but he gave in into the pleasure anyways. After a long moment, they separated.

"Never thought you would pull such a stunt, Lavenza. Should I feel concerned for showing you those sappy dramas?"

"Ehehe, you did ask for this you know. Well, good luck out there and don't worry, I will follow you shortly."

"Yeah. See you later, Lavenza, Igor."

Akira entered the door and waved at the two before the door disappeared.

* * *

After the blinding light dimmed outAkira found himself in a moving train. He checked his belongings and found that he was in a strange uniform but other than that and his weapons were inside his bag, everything was the same. He looked around and saw a boy around Akira's age with blue hair and the same uniform as his. It seemed that the boy was unaware of his presence as he was listening to his headphones. Shrugging, he took out his phone and found out that the time was 11:50 pm of April 7, 2009. Akira looked up at the neon board and it showed that the destination was Iwatodai. Suddenly, a rush of knowledge flowed into his brain as Akira suffered a minor headache.

'Hmm, let’s see… I am a transfer student from Tokyo that is supposed to attend Gekkoukan High School and stay at Iwatodai Dormitory.’

Akira told himself. He took out the Persona Compendium and Lavenza was right: some of them were indeed missing, namely Orpheus, Izanagi, Thanatos, Asteros, Messiah and others that had the Picaro counterparts.

'Well, one or two less Personas isn’t a problem. I still have you right, Satanael?'

A humming from the Persona was the response. He looked at the boy and since they were going to attend the same school, it's not hurt to introduce each other, right?

"Hi there."

Akira greeted the boy, showing his friendliest smile. The boy put away his headphones – A Sonix brand, Akira mused – and turned to him with a bored look. Akira suppressed a gulp in his throat; what's with him?

"You're a transfer student like me too? Akira Kurusu, nice to meet you." Akira said while extending a hand to the boy.

"…Minato Arisato, likewise." The boy replied, still with that apathetic look.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akira and Minato's introduction to the female residents of Iwatodai dorm

Akira was chatting with Minato about the latter's circumstances leading to his attending Gekkoukan when a blackout occurred. The Thief initially dismissed as system malfunction until he saw multiple coffins and blood on the streets, which were not good signs. Noticing a strange green light above, Akira looked up to see a creepy greenish moon.

"What the hell?"

Akira turned to Minato, who was as dumbfounded as he was but not showing anything other than slight surprised before continuing his way.

'It feels like I can summon Persona but this sensation… This is not Metaverse…' Akira raced his mind to think of a logical hypothesis for this but none came up. 'Tch, no more time to waste. I still need to get to this Iwatodai Dorm.'

And with that, Akira promptly followed Minato. Unknown to him, there was a shadowy figure on the tall building nearby observing him from the beginning, his/her appearance looking very familiar to Akira.

The duo saw a building with lights still functioning inside. Akira and Minato traded suspicious look before shrugging and heading to it anyway. The former grabbed his pistol from the bag just in case.

"…"

Akira gulped nervously as he reached the doorknob. Turning to Minato, who nodded nonchalantly, he pulled.

Akira let out a low whistle. The furniture looked neat with an old model TV and sofa. On his left was a counter and at the corner ahead was a bar of sort. He sighed in relief as he put the Tyrant Pistol back to his bag and turned to Minato, who was standing motionlessly.

"Minato?" Akira shook Minato's shoulders and received no response. "Earth to Minato Arisato! Hello!" He shook again and Minato snapped out of whatever kept him occupied.

"What?"

"Man, you were standing there like a statue and – huh?"

Akira was interrupted by the sudden blackout in the lounge. Looked like someone switched them off.

"!"

There was a low yelp as a feminine figure emerged from the shadow ahead. The girl was panting as she reached an object on her waist; a gun of sort. Akira acted first by drawing his pistol and aiming at her.

"Eh?" Minato muttered at Akira. The Joker's eyes still fixed at the girl without blinking. His finger stayed put on the trigger as his composure sent a message 'Do it and you die first'. When tension seemed to reach the breaking point…

"Takeba, wait!"

The three people in the lounge turned to the source of that voice. Almost instantly, the lights were on and the song in Minato's MP3 played again. The atmosphere was a lot lighter at the moment.

"… I think you should lower your gun. Let's just be civil." Minato tapped Akira lightly and whispered. The teen locked his eyes at the girl one last time before lowering his gun and sighing.

"Sorry for scaring you. Just being cautious and all." Akira bowed at the girl while apologizing. She quickly dismissed it and said that it was her fault for starting it first.

* * *

After the introductions, Mitsuru went to the main business.

"At first, the transfer student was only Arisato. I only knew about you at the last minutes so please forgive me for that, Kurusu-kun."

"Ah it's nothing wrong, Senpai. People tend to forget about unimportant things." Akira rubbed his neck and replied. The Kirijo heiress nodded solemnly before noticing his Tyrant Pistol.

"Takeba and I only carry guns for self-defending. But why are you also having one too, Kurusu?"

This took Akira off guard. He had not thought of a reason for his bringing a dagger and a gun. Oh yeah, why did he not remember that sooner!

"W-Well, mine is a real deal but it has no bullets. See for yourself." Akira unloaded the magazine and gave Mitsuru. True to his words, it was empty. She promptly handed it back to Akira.

"Very well. Takeba, take Arisato to his assigned room. Kurusu, you will stay here. I have some questions for you."

Akira's eyes slightly widened; it must be about his gun! He eyed Minato and sent a silent message 'I will be alright. You should rest' which the blue haired nodded and followed Yukari. Mitsuru gestured him to sit down.

"And now, Kurusu, we need to confirm few things." Her expression hardened. "… Are you a Persona user?"

Akira stiffened.

"I place many cameras outside the dormitory. You and Arisato were walking during the Dark Hour without troubles. Tell me, who exactly _are_ you?"

Akira's mind raced; he could not afford to lie further. She knew of Persona users and earlier, he did sense an aura matching with that of a Persona. Was she a member of this 'SEES' group Igor had informed him about? He had to confirm further.

"What if I am? And this Dark Hour you are speaking of, is it relating with green sky, coffins and pools of blood outside?"

"…So you did notice. Very well, there is no point hiding it any further."

Mitsuru explained the Dark Hour's nature and the definition of 'Persona user' to Akira. It would seem that people who did not transfigure into coffins had the 'Potentials'. If guided properly, they could awaken their Personas and fight against the Shadows. She even told him of her Shadow fighting club, or SEES as she put it.

'Hmm, interesting.'

"Long story short, you want me to join SEES, correct? Well, my answer is No."

Mitsuru was taken apart by this. Before she could retort, Akira raised a hand to stop her.

"Your invitation is tempting I must say. Unfortunately, I am the type that prefers working alone." Not exactly a lie, since he had a close bond with The Phantom Thieves of Heart, he could not abandon them to join another group. Loyalty is not something you can throw away that easily.

"You may count me as a 'backup' of sort but I don't like working with others, sorry for that."

"… I need more time to think. Until then, you can stay here. And please, do not tell this to anyone other than the people living in this dorm. Normal people should not be informed of this threat."

"That I can promise. Unless you have further questions for me, I will head to my room. Have a good night, Senpai."

And with that, Akira went to the 2nd Floor with his luggage, leaving a deep in thought Mitsuru.

* * *

"Oh, Takeba-san –"

"Yukari is fine, Akira-kun. Your room is at the end of the hall… What? You live in the same room with Minato-kun?"

"Uh really?"

Akira stared at her confusedly as the girl went downstairs to check again before coming up.

"That explained the 2-storey bed there. Well, like Senpai said, your arrival was not expected so we could not prepare another room for you so you have to stay with Minato-kun temporarily." Yukari said while sighing. "Hey, on your way to here, have you seen anything out of ordinary?"

"You mean green sky, coffins everywhere and blood on the streets? Pretty much." Akira answered nonchalantly. This earned him a long stare from Yukari as if he had grown two heads. "What? Mitsuru-senpai explained to me about it and this 'Dark Hour' earlier."

"Oh. Then have you decided about it? You know, SEES stuff?"

"Nah, I am the ‘lone wolf’ type of guy so SEES is out of question for me." Seeing Yukari's crestfallen face, he patted her head lightly, a habit he had picked up back in Tokyo when a girl he was close to felt sad, especially Futaba. She blushed heavily. "But I can still join some skirmishes with you guys though. Well, I'm really tired now so, excuse me. Good night, Yukari-san."

Akira waved at Yukari with a smile before entering his and Minato's room. The girl waved back timidly, mumbling something

* * *

before going upstairs.

Akira closed the door and took a good look at his new room. Minato was fast to sleep, and he didn't even bother to change his clothes. Not like Akira cared though, he was too tired as well. Carefully putting his bag on the table, he went to the sink to wash his face before going to sleep. When he looked at his reflections, he saw Satanael, well, a much smaller version of Satanael behind him.

**I'm surprised that you didn't summon me earlier, Trickster.**

"I can't just change to Joker and make awesome pose without you right, Satanael?" Akira replied while grinning. His Ultimate Persona laughed curtly in return.

**True, true. But what will do you from now, Trickster? Our presences in this timeline already caused a butterfly effect. We cannot risk inferring further.**

"Now you mention it." Akira rubbed the bridge of his nose and thought. "I guess I will keep a low profile from now. Damn…"

 **If you have any troubles, I and the rest of your Sea of Souls will gladly help you, Trickster**.

"Thanks a lot, Satanael."


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akira makes friends and something unexpected happens

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Akira stops wearing his classes but not completely. He may use it again in the future.

Akira heard the familiar tune as soon as he drifted into the realm of Hypnos. He smiled; it's good to be in Velvet Room again. He rose from the bed and walked outside of his cell toward the ever smiling Lavenza and kind Igor.

"Welcome to the Velvet Room, my dear guest." Igor spoke with his elderly voice. "I assume you have made acquainted with him?"

"You mean Minato? Yeah I did. He still does not awaken his Persona, but he is aware of the phenomenon that you called 'Dark Hour' and seems to either adapt to it well or just ignore it. He has huge potential." Akira expressed his early analysis of Minato, earning a nod from the Master of Velvet Room. But then Akira narrowed his gaze.

"Igor, you and your master do understand my hesitation, don't you? The butterfly effect, that is."

Igor nodded solemnly at the statement. He had anticipated this from the beginning. The elder man gestured Akira to take a seat before folding his hands.

"We sent you to the past, yes, but we also isolate this timeline from the mainstream without Mahakala knowing until you defeat him or his underlings sent to kill the Messiah. But beware, it is only due time that the god will be aware of this. I advise you to keep a close eye on the boy, not helping him directly of course, to make sure everything is the same or at least similar to what had happened. You may receive visions before you do anything that can alter the course of time but it is entirely your decision whether to act or not. Remember, my guest, the fate of this world is in your hand. Do not allow Mahakala to kill the Messiah."

Lavenza gave him the Velvet Key, but before he asked that he had already had one, Akira noticed that the key was crimson, his favorite color, and had some patterns that really reminded him of Arsene, his very first Persona. The attendant beamed upon his gaze, knowing well what he was going to say.

"As I have my duty of assisting the Messiah, I decided to make a separate door to avoid confusion. You still can use the old one for the door at the back alley of a place called Paulownia Mall. You may run into him or my other assistant, who is Lavenza's sister. That's all I want to say." Igor waved his hand as everything around Akira became brighter. "Time passed as we discussed. You have your own matters in the real world as well. Farewell and stay strong."

Akira nodded before his vision faded.

Minato had a dreamless night, yes, but for some reasons, there was a voice in his head, screaming about 'Satan saving Christmas'.

* * *

-Next day-

Yukari went to the new members' room, intending to make acquainted with them further by showing them her school. Last night, aside from the misunderstanding between her and the fizzy haired teen, what made she so scared was a gigantic silhouette that was leveling its own gun, no, cannon toward her as well. She could deal with burglars using her Io, overkill as it sounded, but against a monstrous thing like that? Not in million years, especially how inexperienced she was at the moment.

Inhaling, Yukari brought her hand to the door and knocked. No answer. Sighing, Yukari knocked again and this time, someone opened. It was Minato, already in student uniform with bag and stuff, behind him was a half-sleepy Akira busy fixing his hair and clothes, which was rare since he always got up early for school back then. Well, to be fair, he hadn't gotten used to this timeline.

"Oh, Takeba-san, what are you doing here?" Minato politely asked, getting Yukari's attention.

-Skip towards Gekkoukan-

Akira admitted, this place lived up its name as a prestigious school. The schoolyard was huge, the buildings were exotic and stuff but all of that could not sway his mind from Shujin. Sure, it was almost a shitty place but thanks to that shitty school, he had gained a lot of friends and allies alike. Those bonds, to him, were impossible to replace.

'Well, might wake around to get familiar then.'

Excusing himself from Minato and Yukari, Akira decided to take a stroll. Things seemed pretty normal and peaceful from a group of junkies running around the field, a male student painting a large oak tree in the courtyard, a teacher with a…samurai helmet? conversing with a foreign student. He was walking near the faculty office when he saw a boy with blue short hair in matching blue shirts, cap and yellow ties. He seemed to be a faculty member's son since he looked so young. Not leaving a confused kid in this place, Akira decided to act.

"Hey little guy, are you lost?" He gently asked, using his maxed Kindness to its fullness. The boy in question startled and turned to him before gasping in shock.

"Y-Y-You are?!" He took a step back, trembling. Akira raised his eyebrow and advanced with good intention. He flinched at the sight of tears rolling down on the boy's face before he launched himself into Akira with a big hug.

"W-Woah there, you alright there?!" Akira asked a bit loudly. Maybe the kid did get lost and was glad to see someone asking? Nah, he internally dismissed. The boy kept hugging him until Akira noticed that the duo had attracted a lot of stares.

"H-Hey, I don't like breaking your mood but people are staring. Let's go somewhere quiet, okay? Should be about 15 minutes until the opening ceremony." Akira suggested while mumbling the last part. The boy nodded as the larger teen led him to the courtyard.

Akira sat on the stone bench across the boy, the former staring at the latter in awkward silence. The latter kept stiffing nonstop which made Joker even more nervous. What did I do? He asked himself that. Muttering courage, Akira spoke up.

"Well, um, what was that earlier? I mean, why did you go all teary on me like that?"

"D-Don't you recognize me, Ichirou Nii-san? It's me, Naoto!" The boy finally spoke, but what he said shocked Akira. Wait what?

'There must be some sort of misunderstanding, cuz how the heck am I having a sibling in the past?! Not to mention, I don't have any from beginning with!'

"U-U-Uhhhh, Naoto isn't it, you must be mistaking me to someone else as my name is Akira Kurusu, not Ichirou."

Naoto looked mortified but then calmed down after taking multiple breaths. Despite displaying a perfectly poker face, Akira was super worried inside. Butterfly effect already, now time paradox? What would his existence bring next?

"It must be amnesia, it has to be." The boy said to himself but loud enough for Akira to hear. "Don't worry Nii-san, now I have found you, I will make sure to help you restore your memories. I swear in the name of Shirogane House!"

That nailed it. He had to kill this fucking God so that all of this could be fixed and he could return to his own time again. Akira's eyes darkened at the thought of facing something like Yaldabaoth again, his body leaking killing intent so potent that Satanael nearly materialized in the real world. Luckily, the Persona alerted him in time to control his rage.

'That was close! But how? The Dark Hour was one thing, now I can summon Persona in real world too?! What the hell is going on?'

"Um, Nii-san, you looked so scary just a moment ago. Did I say something upset you?" Naoto asked worriedly, his voice sounded even more feminine that Akira started doubting his sex. Wait, was that he or she? Akira took a long inhale and then released it to calm his mind down, though it did little to the turmoil. He muttered the best smile he could do right now to Naoto.

"Ah, I probably remember something unpleasant. Not you, of course."

He went to Naoto's side and patted his head gently. "You are right, I don't have any memories prior my 10th birthday. Must be amnesia, right?" He lied. Naoto's mood brightened up clearly. "I can trust you with helping me find what had been lost, right little bro?"

"Um, Nii-san, actually I am a g-"

The school bell interrupted Naoto as Akira mentally sighed in relief.

"Ah, it's time for the ceremony. Yakushiji-san is going to pick me up. Um Nii-san, can I ask for your number? I'd like to meet you again."

"Oh, of course." Akira and Naoto exchanged phone numbers. "Feel free to call me. I live in Iwatodai Dormitory by the way. Well, I'm almost late now. Stay safe okay?"

Akira waved at his younger sibling and walked away. After making sure that Naoto was out of sight, he dropped the whole acting and replaced it with a deep scowl. He hated lying to children but what could he have done back then? Not to mention, he was a good actor so... He shook his head; thinking about this only worsened his mood.

* * *

After reuniting with Minato and Yukari with Akira having to skip the opening ceremony since, well, he arrived late and wasn't allowed to enter the hall, they went to their class. Akira had to apologize to his homeroom teacher for not showing at the faculty office to receive his class, forcing her to find him herself. Worse, he was scolded in front of the class with Yukari snickering and Minato slightly twitching his lips.

"So much for first day at school…" Akira mumbled in his seat, defeated. A soft buzz from his pocket snapped him from his sleepiness as he checked his phone. It was Naoto. He was asking for Akira's first impression in class and his well being etc. The former mentioned that their grandfather sent his regards to Akira and then ended the message with 'I love you Nii-san'.

'Sounds too emotional for a boy, eh?' Akira smiled lightly. Judging from Naoto's outburst of emotion earlier, she must love her brother Ichirou a lot, who happened to be Akira. In his head, the Leader of Phantom Thieves began to list possible theories about his situation. Igor did confirm that this period of timeline had been separated from the time flow and remained isolated until Akira defeated the perpetrator so yeah, he time-travelled. Another one was about his status as brother to Naoto Shirogane. Akira thought of a normal time paradox situation with him being Akira Shirogane but when he recalled Naoto calling him Ichirou, not Akira, he thought of worse scenario: he was possessing the body of Ichirou Shirogane. If the latter was correct, then he was in a deep trouble.

'Amnesia is a better option though, since I basically inhabit someone who happens to look like me against his will.'

**Stay calm, Trickster. There are too many theories and hypothesizes, I suggest leaving them be until we reach the Prison. Don't you feel it, Trickster? That your essence has been modified, either intentionally by the Masters of Prison or accidentally by travelling to the past.**

Satanael spoke in his head. Akira blinked but then closed his eyes and smirked lightly; Satanael was always the one to calm his mind when he needed it most.

**However, I have a feeling that neither the two above is the cause. Remember, the god Mahakala is the mastermind after the destruction of future, _our_ future, so there should be a possibility that he caused your change. But no matter, we shall punish any gods that play naughty, as the feline once said.**

Akira laughed internally at the mention of Morgana. Ah the mascot of his team, the one guiding him into the path of rebellion unlike Yaldabaoth. He still hated the cat for those times though. Fucking cat literally banned him from going out at night…

"Hey Kurusu-san, you alright there? I hope Toriumi-sensei wasn't too hard on you." Yukari said after tapping his shoulders few times. His seat was beside the windows, his favorite spot. To the right of Akira was Minato talking with a fellow classmate with a baseball cap. Judging from the former's tired face and the latter's dragging on tone, Akira decided to do something. He stood up and walked to Minato, who sent a 'thank you' look to him. The capped teen noticed the other transfer student and immediately put his grin back on.

"Heeeey there, New Guy number 2! Heard you and Minato going to school along with Yuka-tan this morning. You guys are the talk in this school right now!"

"…First, I can't find any reasons why it's a big deal. And second, who are you?" Akira asked with a raised brow. The man in question made a double take at how unfriendly Akira was before coughing.

"The name's Junpei Iori. But hey, you have to feel proud of walking beside one of the most popular chicks in Gekkoukan you know! The rumors are that many Yukaricchi's fanclubs are gunning for you!"

Junpei said with an excited tone. Akira blinked, looked at Minato who shrugged and then sighed. Well, to be honest, he found Yukari quite cute so this kind of reaction was within expectation. He did get a lot of unwanted rumors back in Shujin for chatting with Ann, Makoto, Haru or hell, even his own teacher. It was not like he denied having an intimate relationship with Kawakami but were they that transparent?

"That would be inappropriate. Me and Minato here owned her a favor after all, isn't that right, Minato?"

Minato quickly nodded, much to Junpei's further curiosity.

"What favor? C'mon, give me the dirt!"

At this point, Yukari had had enough. She landed a hard slap on the teen's head to shut his mouth. Junpei then spent the next fifteen minutes being scolded by the brunette for 'butting into people's business too much'.

"Well, now he and I got the same treatment today." He yawned. "Let's go home, I'm really sleepy now."

"Couldn't agree more."

They left the bickering duo behind and exited the classroom. On their way back to Iwatodai, Akira discussed with Minato about their respective background and other stuff. It was then he discovered that the soon-to-be Messiah had had a sister but she along with his parents had long died in the incident at the Moonlight Bridge 10 years ago and he had been in and out from relatives over and over again until this month. Poor guy, Akira thought.

"What about you? Junpei said this morning your brother came to school to see you. I remember you said that you were the only child." Minato inquired. Akira briefly narrowed his eyes; that loud mouth…

"Apparently, I was involved in an accident some time ago and got amnesia as the result. Naoto, my sis –err brother recently heard news of someone looking like me entering Gekkoukan and, well, you already know the rest." Akira told Minato a quickly-made fabricated story. Again, this left a bad taste in his mouth as he again had to lie. Irony for someone who had defeated the God of Lies and Darkness.

"You got caught in an incident too, huh." Minato said, his tone out of character which was sympathetic. He raised a fist to Akira. "So, bros?"

Akira blinked in confusion but then shook his head, finding this kid even more interesting.

"Yeah, bros." He reciprocated the act, ignoring how awkward it looked.

When they reached the Port Island Station, Junpei's voice could be heard from behind.

"Waaaaaaait uuuuuuup!" The teen finally caught up with the duo and was almost out of breath. Out of pity, Akira gave him his water bottle with a chuckle. Junpei chucked the whole bottle down on his throat and let out a satisfied breath.

"Daaamn, that was so good. Hey, why did you leave me behind with Yuka-tan?! She tortured me for the whole half an hour, dammit! My ears weren't so hurt until this day."

"Your fault for provoking her, duh." Minato nonchalantly replied, prompting Junpei to relent. Akira watched the scene with mild interest as he was busy with the earlier revelation.

'Strange, I did ask Igor for the full information about Minato but there was no mention of him having a sibling. What's going on? Did my arrival cause a massive time paradox? Or maybe these are Mahakala's doings? Too many questions…Yeah yeah I know, you don't have to remind me, Satanael.'

**Good, since I don't like being annoyed by those paranoid thoughts of yours.**

'Hey that's cold!'

Satanael let out a laugh before fading again into the Sea of Souls.

After taking the train back to Iwatodai and saying goodbye to Junpei, the duo arrived at the dorm. Mitsuru was reading in the lounge when they entered the building.

"Welcome back, you two." She greeted them. Minato nodded before heading the stairs, Akira was about to follow when Mitsuru addressed him. "Kurusu, I want to resume what was left last night. Are you free?"

Akira stayed silent for a moment before taking a seat opposite to the Kirijo. She presented to him a briefcase and opened it. Inside was a silver Luger-lookalike pistol with 'S.E.E.S' engraved on the side body. It took him few seconds to figure out her intention and it seemed she knew it as well.

"Kurusu, while I don't agree with your conditions, we SEES still welcome you as our newest member. Please accept this Evoker."

"Evoker…From its name, I assume it is the device to summon Personas?" Akira asked. Mitsuru nodded until she realized the last part.

"What do you mean by Personas?"

"You don't know? There are few people that can summon multiple Personas, like I do. In fact, there are other ways to invoke them, not just using a conductor like this Evoker." Akira explained as if it was a matter of fact. To him, at least, but to Mitsuru was a whole new revelation. The Kirijo Group and extension, the Nanjo Group, had been experimenting thorough the years up to now but other than Kei Nanjo himself, no one could summon a Persona without external means like the Evoker. She must look into this more. Any helps would be appreciate.

"Do you have proof of what you said? Summoning a Persona without the Evoker, I mean."

"Ah, you have to wait for the Dark Hour. Though in my experience, you can bring out a portion of your Persona or use their abilities in the real world, though very subtle it will be. That's the reason last night, you can sense Satanael as he always materializes in some ways alongside me. I can sense yours as well. A hybrid of navigatior and offensive Persona, am I right?"

Mitsuru widened her eyes at this information. But in other hand, she did suspect this in the recent years, for an instance, that one accident with Akihiko stepping in her room while she was changing and Mitsuru froze him on the spot with the help of Penthesilea. The chairman might want to hear about this.

Akira analyzed her expressions from the beginning and to be frankly, he had just discovered the second one lately. Back in his original timeline, Morgana stated that Personas could not materialize out the Metaverse, true, but with his coming to this timeline, everything just fell apart. From Yukari seeing Satanael after the Dark Hour passed, Mitsuru sensing the Demon Lord, Akira almost summoning him in front of Naoto earlier in the day with his sheer rage. After an hour of discussing about the matters of SEES, Shadows and Dark Hour, Akira excused himself but without accepting to join the group 'temporarily'. Mitsuru reluctantly accepted that.

"Talking with you was entertaining, Kurusu. I'd like to continue this later."

"Heh, likewise senpai."


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter may feel like dragging on because I want to build up until the Magician Shadow battle. After that, Akira will or will not interact with P3 characters much. Also, there are minor details that some of you may ask:
> 
> Akira in Gekkoukan uniform is similar to how he looks in DLC outfit ingame. And no, he doesn't have his glasses.
> 
> He will form new bonds but as Community, not Confidant or Cooperation in JP. Igor still uses Social Link as a term but Community is exclusive to Akira.

Minato and Akira were chatting about multiple topics, one of which was about the latter's phone.

"That one is a cutting edge model. You must be rich to have it." Minato said, jealousy evident in his tone. Akira laughed awkwardly as he gazed his touchscreen phone. Back in his timeline, it was a fairly cheap and old model, he got it merely for calling, sending messages and few other uses so he didn't care about the technologies much. But maybe in the past, it was indeed one of the most expensive.

"Um yeah, my err uncle got it for me last year." Another lie, Akira thought. They stayed until Minato got sleepy and went to bed first while Akira decided to read the materials from the school in advance, intending to memorize any new information in case he was caught sleeping in class, he could answer effortlessly like back in Shujin. The curriculum was by all means the same but hey, he could be lazy sometimes but he didn't get to the top of Shujin with laziness alone.

After spending two hours of reading, Akira's eyes were heavy. For the first time, he missed those annoying lines from Morgana.

"Fuaaaa –"

With a beat of heart, the sky turned green and the streets were filled with blood-like liquid.

'Hmm, I did promise Mitsuru-senpai. Well, let's get going.'

Akira brought his knife, pistol and the Evoker with him to lounge. As expected, the Kirijo heiress was already there. She seemed to be armed with an Evoker and a rapier, a red armband showing S.E.E.S on her left arm.

"Is he the member?" A new voice said

"Yes. Oh, I forgot to mention him. This is Akihiko Sanada, a senior and one of the founding members of SEES." Mitsuru gestured to the figure standing against the door. Akihiko gave Akira a 'what's up?' hand sight which Akira curtly nodded. "He will accompany us in testing your skills. Now, let's not waste more time. The Dark Hour won't last long. We need to go to Tartarus."

"Mitsuru, I think this isn't the good time to show him the Tower. I know some spots in the city that usually spawn Shadows. We can go to there." Akihiko suggested. The redhead pondered for a moment before nodding.

"Very well. Lead the way, Akihiko."

Luckily, not too far from the Dorm was a horse of Shadows so they didn't need to go the locations Akihiko was leading to. The boxer immediately engaged with a Maya with him uppercutting and then zapping the Shadow. Mitsuru incapacitated a Muttering Tiara with her rapier while freezing another. The seniors were too lost in their battle frenzy that they didn't notice Akira almost slaughtering the rest of the Shadows with his knife alone. Akihiko only stopped from beating a poor Hand to death when he heard the thunderous sound of Tyrant Pistol shredding a Beast-type Shadow to oblivion.

"*whistle* Cool gun there. I thought firearms usually don't work against Shadows?" He asked Mitsuru, who was lost in words as well. She felt a cold chill on her spine when seeing Akira coldly headshot'ed a half dead Shadow on the ground before throwing his knife into the mask of a Cowardly Maya.

"Come…" His eyes went eerie yellow as a mask appeared on his face. Akira grabbed it and then pulled. "Satanael!"

Blue flames burst out from his back and engulfed Joker completely, much to Mitsuru's bewilderment. But then from the flames, a gigantic black silhouette with 3 pairs of demonic wings, a matching halo and two golden long horns. It had a mask and most importantly, a long rifle on its right hand.

"One Shot KILL!"

Upon Akira's command, the Persona leveled its gun toward a Gigas and fired. The bullet at first seemed to only sink inside the Shadow but then the numerous edges burst out from the giant's inside and then reduced into a messy mass of ink. A Beast attempted to sneak up on him but unfortunately, the chain of its collar gave away its position as Satanael turned around and used the bayonet of its gun to skewer the Shadow. Seeing Mitsuru and Akihiko's awed looks. Akira smirked. He cocked up Tyrant Pistol and aimed at the remaining Shadows.

"Show time!" Akira shouted in perfect Engrish and pressed the trigger. Simultaneously, Satanael began unloading hellish bullets with its other self. The scene was so chaotic that not a single dust escaped from the carnage.

…..

Akira continued his slaughter for the good 10 minutes until he felt his SP pool rapidly decreasing. He lowered his gun as he searched his pocket for a Snuff Soul or Soul Food for good measure but soon realized that he didn't bring his bag along, which contained all of his healing items and while Satanel had Victory Cry, it only activated once the enemies were completely gone. For a side note, Akira noticed the lack of his costume and the fact that his gun felt so…real?

**Hmm, these need to be investigated further. Trickster, do you feel it? That you can summon me without using the Mask? It seems that under specific circumstances, you can call forth us Personas with your willpower.**

'This, also needs to be looked into.'

**Indeed. There is one thing I can confirm, that you are using your SP as bullets for the gun, however minimal the tradeoff is. That explains the lack of Cognition in the atmosphere.**

'Really?' Akira exclaimed in his head. Wanting to test, he fired once more into the air. Satanel promptly disappeared after that.

* * *

Mitsuru was impressed with the performance and Akihiko was eager to get Akira as his sparring partner due to his prowess. They insisted that he be their field leader, Mitsuru especially doubled her efforts of persuading him.

'Now this is hard. Why must every Student Council Presidents make things difficult for me?' Akira thought with a sigh. Being a very good actor, he steeled his face and made it clear that he preferred operating alone. Looking at the Kirijo Heiress's dejected face, he briefly reminisced about the unanswered reply to Makoto's feelings. Almost all of his female confidants went head over heels in love with him, except Futaba whom he had made it clear that she was only a sister to him, out of respect for Sojiro and well, his own morality.

**Stop. That experience from the girl known as Noir was more than enough.**

Ah yes, he would never forget about Haru, whom he had to date out of guilt after seeing her taking his rejection not too well. Said girl then gave him and Satanael quite a beating after learning about Makoto. Damn cute, psycho girl with huge ass axe and grenade launcher.

"….rusu? Kurusu!"

"E-Err what senpai?"

"The Dark Hour is already over. Let's go back to the dormitory." Akihiko said before heading back with Mitsuru. Akira soon followed.

Next day was a normal yet boring day to Akira. Aside from interrupting a bully scene involving a junior and two second years and helping Junpei escape Yukari's wrath, everything was just too boring. Looked like he had to seek the Velvet Room later this day.

Akira, Minato and Junpei were going home together again when they saw Akihiko surrounded fan girls. The goatee made remarks about the senior being lucky and popular and the bluenette merely shrugged.

"It's not my time to shine yet. I will surely get a girlfriend by the end of this year, just you wait!" Junpei swore to God. The fizzy haired teen chuckled; somehow it reminded him of Ryuji and, in some degrees, Mishima. When they walked into the Paulownia Mall, Akira excused himself from the duo and headed to the back alley. There rested two glowing doors; one blue and the other light red. Taking his newly acquired Key, he unlocked the latter and then entered.

"Ah welcome back, my Trickster - er, Akira-kun." Lavenza was the first one to greet him. Behind her, Igor nodded kindly from his table. The current Master of Velvet Room stated that there were many Persona Users that could summon their other selves with willpower before so his case was not new. In fact, the more potent his will was, the more odds it could be to call out Persona in the real world. Nice, one problem solved. Next.

"I feel like we are having a massive time paradox here." Akira said, explaining. Igor seemed to understand the situation beforehand as he sat there with the most serious expression he had ever had.

"Due to the nature of this pseudo-pocket timeline, something like that is bound to happen. However, we didn't anticipate the possibility that only your soul got transferred. In the worst scenario, your original body in 2016 will still be incinerated and you have to possess other people in order to exist."

Akira sighed in frustration; things just got better and better. Lavenza quickly went to his side to comfort him. He smiled, appreciating her concern before taking a deep breath to calm down. It could not hide the weary look on his face, however.

"I shall discuss with Master Philemon about further investigation. Perhaps both your soul and body got transported and by pure coincidence that you look like this Ichirou Shirogane. I must ask you to patiently wait for our result, for your own sake. Can you do it?"

Akira nodded tiredly and stood up, massaging his forehead.

"Sorry Igor, Lavenza, gotta rest for the day. Too many things in my head to think."

"We understand. Take a rest now, my friend." Igor said and Akira's vision turned black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Akira Kurusu in this story is the original timeline Joker so when this story reaches Royal, he will either exist as a separate entity or fuse with the Royal Joker.


	6. Chapter 6

~Chapter 5~

A well-dressed girl was looking attentively towards the alley in Paulownia Mall, specifically the young man with fizzy hair that had just entered a minute ago and exited now. Her expression was hard to determine due to the shaggy brown hair and loomed over her eyes but judging from the way her head moved, it would seem that she had been observing Akira from the beginning. Said boy suddenly stopped and much to her surprise, he turned to her with his dead-serious look and a slowly widening smirk.

"!"

She hastily stood up and went to the counter to pay for the coffee before leaving Chagall Café. Akira's eyes followed her until she exited the Mall. At first he thought she was another relative of Ichirou Shirogane but something inside him, particularly the small but now aching scar that _he_ had inflicted to him during their showdown. Not to mention, Satanael informed him of Loki's scent nearby and his Third Eye immediately locked into her once he was outside the Velvet Room.

'How interesting. Is she from my timeline? Is she _that_ guy? She does have Loki's scent all over her body.'

**Indeed. I would say reincarnation but we know too little about her. Be cautious and study her whenever she is in Third Eye's range.**

'Got it. Though it would be weird for the guy to relive again as a girl.'

**Cease your shameless fantasy at once, Trickster.**

* * *

Akira caught the second-to-last train to Iwatodai. Although he was trying to find something else to do like gazing at the ocean or messing with his phone, he couldn't shake off the frustration still building up in his heart. Back then, Akira had had to restrain the rage inside him as much as possible, even when facing the man that had ruined his life, he couldn't bring himself to gun him down because of the humanity in him.

" _PILLAGE HIM, SATANAEL!"_

The moment when his anger, his fury, his rage was unleased, all of them combined into the Sinful Shell. He thought he wouldn't never have to constrain himself again but now, he would have to do that in order to not accidentally his new associates.

" _ **Associates? Is that what you call them?**_ "

"!"

Akira was pulled out of his thoughts when a strange yet familiar voice spoke inside his head. It's clearly not Satanael's.

'Who is there?'

" _ **I ask, do you really consider them: Minato, Yukari, Mitsuru and Akihiko, as substitutes for your teammates, your**_ **true** _ **teammates?**_ _"_

'I don't know who you are but…' Akira wanted to disagree but something inside him told him the otherwise. The voice was true; how could he call those people 'associates' as if they were his teammates, the people brought life back to his existence, the people reminded him of his humanity.

" _ **There it is. You want a normal life after all the hardships, yet you still want to embrace your rebellious nature and save the world once again. Do you ever regret refusing Yaldabaoth's offer?**_ _"_

'Who are you?! Are you Mahakala or his cronies?'

" _ **I am none but yourself. I am not Arsene, I am not Satanael, nor I am not one of your many selves within the Sea of Souls. You know me well... For I am you, you are Me. Once you have sorted out your true feelings, I shall come to you.**_ _"_

"What is this cryptic shit?! Who the hell are you?!"

Akira screamed out loud, startling the people around him, including a certain pinkette. He awkwardly apologized, saying that he was dreaming. Luckily, the train arrived at the station just a minute later so he was saved from further embarrassment. Akira headed to the dorm before a feminine robotic voice could be heard

[ **Target confirmed. Begin Navigation.** ]

Akira looked at his phone and found that the Metaverse Navigator was back. A slight dizziness hit his head as the world shifted.

"What the…?"

Akira was in his Phantom Thief outfit with Tyrant Pistol hoisted on his waist and Paradise Lost on his left hand. He took a quick look at his surrounding; the Metaverse looked the same as before except this wasn't Mementos.

"A Palace? Or Mementos?"

Akira muttered and started walking to examine whether this was a Palace or a new look of Mementos. After few minutes, he returned to the starting location and confirmed one thing: this wasn't a Palace. The whole district gave him Mementos vibes yet in the same time, didn't. Recalling his conversation with Mitsuru, Akira concluded for now that Metaverse somehow fused with the Dark Hour. To test this, he concentrated and called out Satanael without ripping his mask.

It worked but not completely. Satanael still materialized but his figure was blurry and almost unidentifiable if his gigantic body and wings weren't there.

**I can't properly exist in this realm. It feels like a large portion of my power has been taken away.**

"That bad?"

**Indeed. You may use the traditional way to utilize my full strength, Trickster.**

Akira reached his mask and pulled but something strange happened. It wouldn't budge.

"What the…?!"

He tried again but it still glued to his face. After a while, Akira stopped as his face hurt like hell now, even more than the first time he had summoned Arsene. He had to use a Recov-R to stop the pain. Speaking of the items, he checked his pouch and found that he had just used the last Recov-R and there weren't many Takemi's products left. He still had sufficient Beads and Somas though, and that's good sight for him.

"Remind me to restock my items later eh Satanael."

**Got it**

Akira activated Third Eye and started scanning around until he spotted a spike of signal. He drew Tyrant Pistol and carefully approached the direction. Then he heard a scream.

"So much for being cautious!"

He yelled in irritation before sprinting. It was Yukari and a Berith. The girl was on the ground with an Evoker nearby. Akira immediately fired at the Shadow, causing it to flinch, and quickly grabbed his dormmate.

"Are you okay, Takeba-san?"

"This voice... Akira-kun?!"

He landed nearby a shrine and let her down. Yukari appeared to be unharmed but just to be sure, he casted Prayer on her. She looked at him with confused and awed eyes, which was understandable with how potent the spell was.

"Akira-kun, what is this costume? Are you… cosplaying?"

"It's… complicated. I will explain to you LATER!" Akira leveled his gun to shoot down a sneaking Shadow blob behind Yukari. "This place is not safe. Stay close to me."

"R-Right. Let me get the Invoker."

Akira nodded, providing suppressing fire while Yukari went to pick up the gun-shaped object. He found the Shadows strange as they tended to show their true forms and gang up on him but these ones just remained in their ugly, deformed state and slowly approached him.

"I found it!"

"Right. Let's go."

Using Third Eye, Akira located a route that conveniently led to his dorm on his left side. However, it was blocked by a dozen of cross-shaped Shadows, seemingly led by a wrestler-looking one with red aura. Quickly checking his SP pool and Satanael's skill pool, he inhaled.

"Hold on me, Takeba-san. This will get rowdy."

"Wha –"

"Riot Gun!"

A faint projection of the rebellious Archangel appeared and aimed his rifle at the group. A thunderous bullet hail rained down on the Shadows as they were shredded to nothingness. Only few smaller ones and their leader remained.

"What?! A Riot Gun should be more than enough to kill them!"

**Perhaps being unable to fully summon me has something to do with the downgraded power. Use the other spell.**

"Vorpal Blade!"

Multiple laser cuts covered the entire area and ripped the Shadows apart. The Gigas seemed to endure it barely so Akira delivered one last bullet at its head. Carefully approaching the smoking remains of it, he brandished his dagger just in case it was still alive.

'It has the vibes of a Mementos big Shadow but it didn't have a human form.'

**This might relate to the Dark Hour. Let's consult with the Kirijo girl on this matter later.**

'Agree.'

Akira looked at his phone and pressed on the MetaNav icon.

[ **Now returning to real world.** ]

The space around them distorted and they were back to Iwatodai, right in front of their dorm. Akira's Thief outfit faded into blue flames much to Yukari's surprise. He made a small wink and whispered to her ears.

"I will explain everything later. For now, act normally."

"O-Okay."

Akira gave Yukari his trademark smile and entered the building, leaving the girl dumbfounded with a slightly red face. She hit her cheeks twice to calm her mind and followed suit. Inside, the boy was chatting with Mitsuru and judging from her expression, it might be related to what had just happened. Yukari frowned at Akira's quick-to-trust mentality. Not counting her own suspicion towards the Kirijo heiress, it's weird to trust a stranger that fast.

Shaking her head, Yukari made her way to the staircase. Unknown to her, Akira seemed to notice her troubled mind.

"-Kurusu? What's wrong?"

"Ah, it's nothing. About our topic, you did mention a non-Evoker Persona User other than me, yes?"

"Indeed. He is Kei Nanjo, the current head of Nanjo Group, which my Kirijo Group was once part of. I have requested his audience to discuss about your case but so far no reply."

"No need to rush, Senpai."

At that moment, Minato emerged from the door and regarded Mitsuru with a nod and Akira with a small smile. He returned the gesture.

"Oh Arisato, the Chairman wants to meet you. You too, Kurusu. He should arrive now so stay here."

Akira and Minato wanted to ask who this Chairman was when a middle-aged, spectacled man with long brown hair and a goatee entered the dorm. Both teens seemed something off about him but couldn't make it out.

"Chairman."

"Good afternoon, Kirijo-kun." He greeted Mitsuru with a knowing smile and turned at the duo. "And you must be Kurusu-kun and Arisato-kun I have heard about."

…

Akira's eyes twitched at the horrible, _horrible_ puns the Chairman, Shuji Ikutsuki, had just made. Even Satanael agreed with him.

**Make it** _**stap** _

Next to him, Minato tried his best not to show any expression aside sighing repeatedly. Despite it, he learned some interesting information, namely, how S.E.E.S functioned as a normal club in Gekkoukan. A supernatural counter force posed as a student club, he mused.

"So, is there something else you want to ask?"

"Um no, I'm good. Akira?"

"Me too."

Ikutsuki clapped his hands.

"Well then, we will wrap this up. As they say, 'The early bird catches the bookworm'!... Sorry for the bad pun."

'Sorry my _ass_ '

The boys retreated to their room and the first thing Minato asked him was to pinch his cheek, hard, to get the lame jokes out of his head. Akira complied.

"Yewouch! Thanks."

"No prob. I will take the shower first to cool my head, okay?"

"'kay."

* * *

The night went on normally and Akira was having a funny feeling. It's not good, yet not bad at all. He searched through his memories and found out that during his very first day in Tokyo, he had felt the same thing. A long, exciting smirk rose on his face; this night was getting more and more interesting.

**Homework first**

Akira resisted the urge to groan. Why must the teachers give their students so much homework in their second day at school? Even Shujin wasn't like this. Quickly finishing his bath, Akira exited the bathroom to see Minato already doing his part.

Speaking of his roommate, Akira found a bit of himself in Minato. Cold and apathetic to everything and only doing his duty. Thinking back at his past, if the whole fiasco with Kamoshida hadn't happened, he would have become a normal, boring student under probation. But then again, he had been chosen by Yaldabaoth so the God would find a way to rob him into his 'game'.

'Yaldabaoth, or the Demiurge, the False Head Honcho of Heaven in Gnostism. Satanael is his foil and biggest rival. How irony…'


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You may notice some drastic changes of personalities from Akira (as in, different from what the games portrait him) as I wanted a new experience, not just copy&paste everything from original works. The changes also hint something in the future, I won't spoil it here of course.
> 
> After the release of Royal, I was tempted to change Arsene Prime to Raoul but eh, having a Prime alongside Orpheus Telos (Modified or Prime in JP version) is more appropriate to the setting.

~Chapter 6~

-April 9th, 2009-

Akira decided to wake up early to exercise and vent off the unusual headache in his head, which was something akin to a blockade to his thinking and rationality. Yesterday, he an Satanael had spent time discussing about the boundary between real life and Persona-fied counterparts of the Rebel himself and Yaldabaoth. Aside what he had heard from Igor, Akira deduced that he had to be Satanael's modern reincarnation since there was no way he could obtain him as a Persona, regardless the fact that he was Arsene's Evolution.

' **Trickster' is a new term indicating those chosen to rebel against oppressors and fate. Akechi Goro obtained both Robin Hood and Loki, both are regarded as tricksters in their lore. I, however, am a usurper and rebel, not someone who kids around. Either you are truly my reincarnation or random chosen to wield my power, you are destined to rule the Material World, just like the mythology Satanael.**

He, a ruler? Well perhaps that's true if he had a Palace though he doubted that. He had been honest to himself since the awakening so there was no way he could develop a dungeon in his heart. Put that aside, Akira now thought of the current problems. He needed a new phone to avoid unneeded attention and a new weapon dealer. Tyrant Pistol was excellent but its recoil was annoying enough to miss some shots sometimes and Akira was a perfectionist type of person so a single shot missed would be a no-no to him. He needed a more stable, easy to handle firearms and to be honest, he missed the feel of grinding, especially with how downgraded his power was.

"Good morning Kurusu." It was Mitsuru who conveniently sat on the sofa, reading a book with a hot cup of coffee. Akira greeted her and proceeded to the main point. The girl didn't expect to hear such a request from him, mainly the phone, but agreed nonetheless. She was skeptical about the gun part but he made it clear that he needed a close to perfect replica of the real deals in cheap materials so she okay'ed and promised to deliver few real M1911, P226 and one or two magnum-caliber guns, much to his surprise. He had never touched real guns so this was a first

"Man you are awesome, Mitsuru-san. Wish I could court you." Akira complimented her with a wink; she really reminded him of Haru, reliable and, well, cute. Mitsuru's reaction was predictable so he left her to her own device and headed upstairs to prepare for school. Minato was still sleeping like a log so Akira shook him few times to wake him up.

* * *

Today's lessons were boring and thought the literature teacher was your typical elitist kind of douchebag, he completely ignored Minato's quiet snores. How his roommate accomplished that was beyond Akira.

"Hey guys, wanna hit the karaoke and ramen?"

"Urgh Stupei, can you not bother someone for one day? I swear your voice is the source of my migraines." Yukari complained next to Akira, massaging her forehead while packing her stuff.

"Ouch! That hurts, Yuka-tan!" Junpei made a dramatic heart-attack before grinning at Minato and Akira. "What do you say?"

"Whatever, I'm free."

"Me too." Akira nodded. He noticed Yukari trying to get his attention from the corner of his eyes, which reminded him that he hadn't explained to her about _it_. He texted her 'later, in a quiet place' before leaving with his pals. Junpei was almost a Ryuji 2.0 to him with his carefree personality and love for ramen. Though thank God Ryuji wasn't much of a pervert like Junpei.

"Dude, you guys are living with Yukaricchi and THE Mitsuru Kirijo! How can you be so apathetic about that?!"

"Tell that to them, especially Mitsuru-senpai." Akira deadpanned. "There is a big difference between living with hot girls and enjoying them. Yukari is cool and all but Mitsuru is another thing. She will definitely order a firing squad if she finds out you are peeping on her."

"Duuuuude, I'm not _that_ low!"

Minato didn't laugh and kept eating, which Akira noticed. He himself had been apathetic and indifferent but that was prior to his 'revitalization' and he was not _this_ bad. It looked like the guy was just an empty, animated shell to blend in society. If he was THE Messiah Akira was supposed to protect, Akira needed to get the bottom of this.

**There is a familiar scent in that boy. The scent of Death.**

Satanael helpfully added.

**Either he is the Vessel of Death, just as you are my Vessel, or he IS Death. Ironic since he is the Messiah.**

Akira decided to pay another trip to the Velvet Room, wishing that its residents wouldn't be annoyed by his constant visit but he doubted Lavenza would. Saying goodbye to the goofball and Minato, he headed to the back alley and opened the blue door.

"Greetings, Trickster." Igor showed him an elderly smile and Lavenza beamed him with a bright smile. Akira took a set in front of the Velvet Master.

"Afternoon to you two. Well, let's get to the topic. Is Minato Arisato the guy you want me to look after? Also, what's the deal with 'Death scent' from him?"

"Master Minato is indeed the Messiah but not at the moment. I'm afraid that I do not have the exact answer for the second question, Trickster." Igor shook his head. "He is Death, at the same time, he is not Death. You will eventually find out the reason for that. Now, I do have this feeling that you may require the Persona Compendium. Lavenza?"

"Understood, Master. Here, my Trickster."

Inside the book, the Personas were lined up pleasant enough to look without getting dizzy. He swept his hand, allowing the book to randomly show the collection he might want. It showed the infamous 'Bone' Squad as Morgana said, consisting of Matador, the Four Riders, Daisoujou, Mother Harlot, Hell Biker and Trumpeter.

"Odd." Akira said aloud but picked one, Red Rider, and let it sink into his Sea of Souls. He was genuinely startled by a high-pitched laughter in his head. It was from the Rider.

**Ehehe, what do we have here? It's my favorite Other Self! I never spoke before so here I am, the Rider of War, Blood and anything between, Reeeeeeed Riiiiiideeeeer!**

"…"

It seemed that Igor and Lavenza could hear it too, judging from their strained expression as if to accuse him of having such personality. Well, he was partly at fault here with his love for theatric but hey, it's not his fault for not knowing that Personas other than his starter and ultimate could _talk_.

"Ehem, that aside." Igor purposely coughed. "You should take an early rest, Trickster, for tonight's grand performance."

"Grand… performance?"

"You will understand in time."

* * *

Bidding farewell to the duo, Akira exited the Velvet Room and, interestingly, he saw that girl again, sitting in the café nearby. He wanted to go home now but a little fun wouldn't hurt. He entered the café and picked a table just shy one meter away next to the girl's.

"What would you like to drink, sir?"

"Cappuccino please."

He opened his diary and began to write his experiences today, intentionally letting the girl to peek at the content. He allowed a smirk to spread on his face as her eyes widened at the jabs he wrote at her.

'Just like yesterday, today the stalker is following me again. I wonder if she is interested in me or my little boy **.** '

Akira admitted that was a bad joke but hey, she understood it and her reddened face told it to the world. He received the cup from waitress, winked at her and placed the tip before turning a glance at the Akechi-lookalike.

"Like what you see?"

She was expectedly flustered and unable to come up with a reply.

"Akira Kurusu, nice to meet you."

"A-Akemi Gotou! I'm a private detective b-b-but that's not important now. Pleased to meet you, A-A-A-Akira-san."

'Oh god she is just too easy to screw with.' Akira thought with a chuckle. He had to admit, her clumsy display was good but it was useless to Third Eye and his past experience with liars like her. That still needed to be clarified since she looked almost genuinely flustered by his teases, almost.

Akemi was pleasant to talk with and she apparently was hired by a dead kid's parents to investigate the cause of his death and circumstances around it. The detective thought it was a good idea to wander near the area the Lost usually seen. She claimed that Akira had nothing to do with her job but her behaviors around him past days said otherwise. Of course he wouldn't say this to her right away, intending to enjoy the cat-and-mouse game. This reminded him of Makoto and her poor attempt to tail him prior to her joining the team, although Akemi was a little more professional.

'Speaking of detective, where was Naoto?'

…

Said young blunette was arguing with her grandfather over his adamant decision to take her back to Inaba. She saw him, Ichiro-niisan, with her own eyes and even took multiple photos using her advanced, hidden camera and sent them to him.

"I told you many times, Naoto. Ichiro is _dead_ along with your parents. You yourself attended the funeral after all."

"May…Maybe they got the wrong person! I swear, he has the same gentle voice as Ichirou-niisan's, and his touch is warm too! The only difference is his now fizzy and dark hair but that's it!"

"Urgh, I don't have time for this. You are to return to Inaba and continue your study at once, young lady, and that's final. Yakushiji, book the tickets immediately."

"Understood."

The older man shot an apologetic look at his young master before leaving the room. Naoto wanted to scream back at her grandfather but all the lessons about controlling emotions managed to hold her back. She was so close, just a little more and Ichirou-niisan would return to her and the others…

"!"

She jolted up from her seat and went to the windows to burgle her eyes out, trying to make out of the scene in front of her. It was Ichirou-niisan, or Akira as he went by nowadays, in the Chagall Café. Her grandfather followed his granddaughter's gaze and observed the young man. Gone was the genetic blue hair and instead, the fizzy dark hair almost made him unrecognizable by normal people. Takechirou still saw the sharp, intense stare Ichirou always had.

And of all sudden, he turned to his direction with a maniac smirk. Takechirou momentarily flinched but then the next second, Ichirou didn't look at this way anymore and was conversing with Akemi Gotou, daughter of Takechirou's colleague back in the day. He hoped she could extract more information from the boy. For now, he had to feint ignorance.

* * *

"Well, I need to get back the dormitory before six so _she_ won't scold me for the rest of the day."

"She? Oh, I forgot you are living with Mitsuru Kirijo, who is renowned for her strictness and discipline."

"The very same one." Akira stood up and waved at Akemi. "I paid for yours earlier. Consider this as a welcoming present, _Goro_."

Akemi was speechless at the word. Once he was out of sight, a grim and longing look appeared on her face. She opened her wallet and took out a small picture displaying a group of students, the center was Akira and a male version of Akemi.

"So he knew already…"

* * *

-Iwatodai Dormitory-

"Welcome back, Kurusu." Mitsuru greeted. There was a big metallic box with a big Kirijo emblem on the table.

"I take that it has those?"

"Indeed. I must warn you: do not bring them with you without concealment and do _not_ test the bullets. They are rubbers, yes, but serious injuries can happen."

Akira was too distracted to listen to her, only humming as response. He held the first gun, the Coonan with Compensator, essentially a bigger M1911 using high-calibers like .357 rounds. He doubted Mitsuru mistook it for the original M1911 but he though he loved this baby more, plus the Compensator made it way cooler.

The second one was a Sig Sauer P226, just as promised. It came with a rectangular suppressor, an odd decision but not unusable. The trigger felt comfortable to shoot and Akira bet he could rapid-fire with it. Overall this was a good alternative for Tyrant's Pistol, as that gun was way too overpowered to wield right now.

The last one was a weird-looking gun that literally came out from those Star Wars films he watched with Futaba. Upon inspection, he could tell that it was single shot, breech-loading only if the slider behind was anything to say.

"That is a prototype gun specialized in hunting Shadows, based the failed Triple Action Thunder. The lead scientist needs a field-tester so I thought you might be the best candidate for that. It comes with ten special-made bullets so if you want to use them, make it count. They are thoroughly tested so there should be no problem." Mitsuru pointed out. "Father told me that there should be another batch of weapons coming in May. He has used connections to, ahem, 'smuggle' a Triple Threat and pair of Benelli Shotguns in case you need more firepower."

"Hot damn, Senpai. I only asked for one or two guns, not like a whole armory." Akira tried his best not to let his jaw drop. Shotguns were not his thing, they're Ryuji's, but free was free. 

"I do not know whether this is a good thing or not but Father is an avid firearm enthusiast and he is very serious about his hobby." The redhead rubbed her forehead and sighed in defeat. 

"… God I really wish I could kiss you now, Kirijo-senpai."

Akira felt like the temperature in the floor was dropping and Mitsuru was having a very dangerous look on her face so he grabbed the box and made a run to the stairs.

**You need to reign in your libido, Trickster. Have you forgotten that Haru Okumura almost murdered you because of it?**

Satanael spoke up with a disappointed tone.

"Totally. Worth. It."

To his surprise, Minato was already asleep even though the clock hadn't even hit eight yet. He must have partied like hell with Junpei so Akira wouldn't comment on that. Setting his bag down, he began to tweak around the guns and ignore his Persona's reminder of doing homework first. It would seem that Satanael had become Morgana 2.0.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As the date indicates, next chapter will be the battle with Magician Shadow and Minato's Awakening. Stay tuned guys!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I admit that Akira's presence already distorted the timeline. For example, Minato will be drastically influenced by him, Naoto knows of the Dark Hour and Shadows, Mahakala and his goons will usurp the Twelve Shadows (not Nyx) as the main villain group. His existence is also erased from the original timeline, meaning that if he manages to defeat the interlopers, his world is still gone so he will have to jump bodies and transfigure them, similar to Kyouji Kuzunoha. There can be a happy ending in the end though I'm not sure my definition of it will align with yours.
> 
> Minato's complicated emotion state will be explained partially in this chapter. You have seen him acting just like any other teenagers but people around him, well except blockheads like Junpei, can clearly see something very wrong with him. If I let it stay like normal, readers will call it inconsistent.
> 
> Akira's 'General Personas', which are shared with the other protagonists, will possess exclusive Shin Megami Tensei skills (and appearances depending on which one) to distinguish themselves. Also, the Community System Akira has opposing the Social Link will not function like it or Confidant.

~Chapter 7~

Shinjiro Aragaki was standing on his favorite spot at the back alley of the station, brooding and ignoring the chatting kids as usual. He had prepared the meals for the 'exchange' and it should take less than an hour for _them_ to arrive. The teenagers noticed the packages near Shinjiro, mistaking them for drugs (Shinjiro never understood why the hell they could mistake packages _this_ big as drugs) so they approached him to ask and, potential, take some. A glare from him and the timed arrival of the trio told them the otherwise.

"My, quite a problematic mass isn't it, Aragaki?"

"You should just beat them to death then."

Shinjiro narrowed his eyes at the newcomers, particularly the naked hippy man.

"Mind you damn business. Do you have it?"

"Patient is virtue. Jin, give it to him."

The blue haired shorter man opened his briefcase and presented a small parcel with white pills inside. Shinjiro eyed it for a moment before nodding and exchanging it for his own.

"It is not too late to reconsider my offer, Aragaki."

"Told it once, told it again. I don't want to be involved with your stupid shit. Get the hell out of here or I will tell _them_."

"Tch, you think you can get out of here alive?" Jin snarled back, holding a grenade.

Shinjiro just smirked at that.

"I'm dying anyway so at least you and the hippy will go to hell with me. The girl can go or join you, for all I care."

"Now now, violence is very unnecessary here. Aragaki is correct; even with all three of us, bringing his down will take a lot of resource and effort and let's not pretend that _they_ won't notice a body in this place unlike the _others_."

"The Jesus-wannabe is right. Go home and cry to your mamas, suicide bomber."

Once the trio left, Shinjiro exhaled heavily and looked the pills with disgust. They were horrible, both taste and effect, but he needed them to survive and wait for his chance. He had to wait. He had no choice but to wait.

* * *

Akira lay down on his bed, reading a book about a certain tragic Greek musician and his wife, while Minato rushed through his homework to rest early. The former had to hide the guns from the latter since there was no need to show off legit lethal weapons like a kid.

"Hey Minato, do you have any siblings back home? Yeah it's weird for me to ask since two days earlier a kid showed up proclaiming to be my sister so yeah."

"Lost the whole family 10 years ago." Minato replied immediately, seemingly uncaring about the issue.

"…Sorry." Now Akira felt very bad. No wonder why the guy was so apathetic. He had lost everything and now he was just existing, not living to the fullest. But that didn't explain why he had _Death_ , the literal being, inside him.

"What about your relatives?" He pressed further.

"No one wants to house a, say, 'Death Child'. The big guys in government forced them to take care of me but they only obliged for a year or so before shipping me to another." Minato replied and turned at Akira, sighing. "It was a pure luck that I got the scholarship to this school. Probably finish the high school as quick as possible so I can find a quiet place to live for the rest of my life."

Akira thought Minato was similar to him after the incident with Shido and prior to his arrival at Tokyo but, god, he was just a sad human being. Did he say 10 years ago? Did something bad happen? Seeing Akira's expression, Minato decided to elaborate

"A loud crash and everything was on fire. The next thing I knew was the news about my parents and younger sister." For the first time, Minato scowled. "I hate this city. Too many bad memories, especially the Bridge. I wish I could just give up the scholarship to someone else and stay away from here as far as possible but…"

Understanding the meaning, Akira stopped inquiring and left Minato to his own device. He needed to ask Mitsuru about what had happened as her company practically owned the Tatsumi Port Island. For now, he wanted to have a good sleep for whatever tomorrow waiting for him.

…

'Fuck my mouth…'

The Dark Hour kicked in and there was a very bad feeling in Akira's head, bad enough to wake him up. After that, an earthquake knocked him off of the bed, waking up Minato as well. Two of them just stared at each other for a while, the alleged Messiah had an annoyed look on his face.

"Well, nightmare?"

*bam bam*

Someone was slamming the door. Minato silently ordered Akira to check it out so he hastily put on a decent shirt and opened it. A panting Yukari greeted him.

"Huh, late night exercise eh Yukari-san?"

"Now is not the time for jokes! Get Arisato-kun and follow me, quick. It's coming fast."

"…A Shadow, isn't it? Alright, give me a moment. I need to vent off some steam too." Akira had an ear-splitting grin right now, which unnerved Yukari. She handed over a short sword to him, saying that it's for Minato in case things went south.

Akira went back inside and gathered his equipment while telling Minato to prepare himself. The blue-haired teen just stared nonchalantly and complied without a word.

"Which one should I choose…"

He picked the Coonan and strapped it to his waist alongside Paradise Lost though the fused knife was too big and spikes would end up hurting him so he held it outside for now. The rumbles were getting closer so Akira grabbed some healing items and the Evoker, just in case, for the last before urging Minato to get out of the room.

"What is the plan, Yukari-san?"

"Mitsuru-senpai said that we have to get Arisato-kun to safety first and then both of us will help the fighting. I don't doubt her and Akihiko-senpai but that particular Shadow is nasty enough to give him quite a wound…"

"How…troublesome." Akira muttered. Minato suddenly stopped running and turned to stare at the eerie moon outside windows. "What's wrong, dude?"

"The moon… It reminds me of that night…"

"What are you doing?! Our lives are in danger. Do you have death wish?!"

Akira understood how stressful Yukari was but she was uncharacteristically desperate now. Minato turned to her, his eyes uncaring.

"Is dying that scary to you? I stopped caring about it long time ago."

"How can you say that… AH!"

There was a giant mask staring at them. Akira took aim and fired three shots in succession to blast off the arm that was pressing the glasses.

"Dammit, they found us. Yukari-san, take Minato and go! Knock him off if necessary."

"R-Roger that!"

Yukari began to drag Minato to downstairs while Akira slowly retreated and continuously fired at the Shadow, SP constantly pouring into the handgun. The monster was huge so it was safe enough to assume that it wouldn't enter the building, though he doubted that it came alone. The previous encounters with Shadows in this timeline told him that they always went in packs.

He had to help Yukari. God knew she could defend herself, Persona or whatnot. And at this moment, something from behind the Shadow flew at him and grabbed his face.

* * *

Yukari and Minato barely dodged a claw from a Shadow and made their way back to the stairs with the male teen awkwardly but manageable swinging the sword to chop off the squishy arm of the creature. The girl kicked its face to make it back off and grabbed Minato's hand to run to the stairs again.

"Oh God they are everywhere!"

"…The roof."

"Huh? Right, we should have more time defending ourselves there. Let's go, Arisato-kun!"

Yukari didn't notice that there was a small trace of blood on the second floor where Akira was earlier but Minato did. He wanted to say something but for some reasons, his mouth compelled him to stay quiet so he complied.

Finally, they made it to the rooftop. Yukari barricaded the door with anything she saw and dropped to her knees, exhausted after all the action. She didn't rest for long as a bloodied body of Akira was in front of her, staying still on the floor with a floating humanoid creature on the air.

"Hmm, a puny human came to challenge me, the mighty Yakasha. Must I waste time playing with pests?"

"A Shadow? And it talks!"

"Shadow is a facet of human while I, Yakasha, am a pure Demon. Master Mahakala has sent me here to eliminate the meddling Trickster and the future Messiah. Girl, you are not in my hit list so I give you one precious chance to flee."

Yakasha was a red-skinned, fat Hinduism demon armed with a long sword currently unused on his back. He was usually associated with his kind, Yaksa, but Yakasha was a special case as he had a strange emblem on his forehead visible to witnesses.

Yukari reached her Evoker, preparing for the worst when the worst arrived in the form of the gigantic Shadow with a mask acting as its face earlier. It had multiple arms, each hand carrying a sword. The hand that was holding the mask turned to acknowledge Yakasha's presence. The demon raised an eyebrow at the creature before it completely ignored him and went for Minato and Yukari.

* * *

Akira couldn't move. That sudden attack effectively disabled him and he couldn't identify the assailant. A part of his mind said that it was Akechi, or Akemi now, but he bruised it aside as that idea was too ridiculous to believe, even with all the sympathy Akira might have.

**What's wrong? Are you going to sleep now? Where is that burning resolve?**

Satanael? Red Rider? No. That voice didn't belong to either of them. It brought a very irritating and disgusting feeling into Akira's mind. He knew that he had met this being somewhere.

**We have met once before. Or rather, you and that other depiction of mine. I am the Demiurge, Ruler of Heaven and Creator of Satanael.**

"YOU BASTARD!"

Akira 'woke up' and screamed.

**Do stay calm. I carry your memories of Yaldabaoth and all of his machinations but in the same time, I am not Yaldabaoth. To be precise, I am the Persona taking shape of Demiurge.**

A bright light shined through the hazy atmosphere, revealing a humanoid creature with six pairs of wings and various colors. Akira couldn't see the entirety of Demiurge's appearance but he assumed that the Persona looked nothing like that despicable God.

**Good. Now we can talk like two civilized humans. A servant of Mahakala attacked you and rendered you unconscious along with your other Personas. Now I can bring you back to the material world but only for a brief moment as I am not properly awakened yet. Take the summoning device and call forth my name.**

"You are awfully nice for someone based on the Control God. You sure you aren't Satanael in disguise?"

**I am Yaldabaoth in name and origin only. I am born from a side of yours that desires Order over Chaos. In other words, I am your version of the Control God but removing the bad aspects.**

"…God you made it sound like I really want to make that bastard my own. Yuck." Akira gagged. "Alright, I'm betting on this. Staying here won't help me otherwise."

**Good. Let us begin…**

* * *

Akira weakly regained consciousness as a searing heat was starting to make him sweat. He was on the rooftop with Minato, who was having a creepy grin on his face. A mechanical humanoid that looked ungodly similar to Orpheus was throwing fireballs, Agi, to the giant Shadow Akira saw earlier. Quickly scanning through the battlefield, he saw a red, chubby man watching the event unfolded with interest on the sky. That should be his attacker.

"Yukari…san?" He could make out a pink silhouette of Yukari nearby and called out.

"Ah, Akira-kun!"

"Do you know any healing spell? I need one…ASAP."

"I do but my Evoker is…"

"Take mine." Akira breathed. "It's in the pocket. Hurry or we are gonna die once Minato is out of juice with the rate of fire he is throwing Agi at that surprisingly agile Shadow."

"And who do you think I am to allow you?"

A huge gust of wind headed towards the two and while Yukari was resistant to Wind element, Akira was not due to his Personas disabled. The razor edges sliced off a good chunk of his clothes and left lots of cuts on his body after blowing him to the wall.

"You sneaking little shit!"

"Ah ah, that's not how you address your soon-to-be killer."

Yakasha sent another Garudyne to Akira, tormenting him further. Yukari was shaking; she couldn't get Minato to snap out of his trance and she couldn't gather enough courage to summon Io. But Akira was in pain and was about to get killed for real this time.

"Come on, Yukari. You can do this…"

Holding Akira's Evoker, Yukari inhaled, strengthened her mentality and pulled the trigger.

"PERSONA!"

Blue fragments escaped from her body and formed the Persona Io. She commanded it to send back a blast of Garu to Yakasha and, surprisingly, he got knocked back despite having a Wind spell. She immediately used Dia on Akira multiple times to ensure he was on his feet again.

"Thanks a lot, Yukari-san." He received his Evoker back. "A Wind user and a Healer, huh…"

"Yeah, Io is more of a Healer though. You helped me to overcome my hesitance so, thank you too Akira-kun."

Akira went to shake Minato out of his rampage. It didn't work at first but when he slapped the boy twice, it worked.

"Woa- What did I do?"

"You were kinda crazy but eh, a little nuts hurts no one." Akira looked at his Evoker. "Well, it's my turn."

Facing the Magician Shadow, who was apparently uninjured, Akira pointed the gun to his temple and took a long breath.

"Per…so…na"

*bang*

He could hear the sound of glasses shattering and then, his head went bonkers. Akira let out a scream that tore through the green sky as the headache hurt so much, it felt like something was trying to bust out from inside.

…

"What's going on?! Normally a summon of Persona wouldn't cause such reaction!"

"Why is it 'normally' and not 'definitely', Mitsuru? I thought your scientists were so sure about that!"

"I…I, I don't know!"

Akihiko stormed to the door.

"What are you going, Akihiko?"

"Help our newbie, what else? If the pain doesn't kill him, those Shadows will."

"…Wait, there is something else."

…

Akira struggled through the pain and held the Evoker to his temple again. He wouldn't allow himself to be defeated by such a small obstacle. He would survive this, he would kill the mastermind and then, he would see _them_ again!

"DEMIURGE!"

*bang*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the cliffhanger. The next chapter will be a true boss fight against the Magician Shadow, which the game doesn't have, and Yakasha. Stay tuned!


	9. Small update

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a short update on new, non-spoiler stuff in this fic.

Communities: A follow-up Social Link/Confidant system for Wildcards who have completed their Journey that unlocks certain aspects of the each Community and allows both Wildcard and the Community to gradually reach their (True) potential.

Combination Blaster: An individual Fusion Raid between the Persona and its User, function similar to Showtime in P5S. Deal specific-elemental damage, including Almighty.

The return of dual/triple/quad-element Skills.

Nuclear and Mind/Psychokinesis are exclusive to Akira while Earth and Havoc are Minato’s. Havoc in this case is a special type of Physical damage that only complete invulnerability can block, similar to Almighty.

???’s Personas can inflict non-elemental damage and bypass invulnerability, similar to Armageddon.

Regular Hama and Mudo spells now deal damage like Eiha and Kouha though Akira retains the latter spells to distinguish him from Minato, Ken and Koromaru.

Gun skills and Akira’s semi-auto magnum pistols deal additional Pierce damage.

SEES’ Ultimate Personas now possess their Answer-only skills along with few exclusive attacks SMT-style.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That’s all for now. The latest chapter is on the way so stay tuned!


	10. Chapter 10

~Chapter 8~

"DEMIURGE!"

*bang*

Yukari thought she was about to see Akira's dormant Persona, as Mitsuru-senpai had explained that it helped him with the inhuman activities but not actively. She too sensed a very gargantuan being warping around him when they first met each other but she did not expect to see a literal angel descending from the sky. It had a pseudo mechanical appearance with eight pairs of multi-colored wings, a Victorian-looking set of armor and holding a majestic sword.

"That is… You, what have you done to Lord Yaldabaoth?!"

Akira ignored the demon as he clenched his hand before stabbing the fingers onto the left side of his chest, where the heart was. This made a sickening sound that nearly made Yukari puke. She could even see the fingers jerking as if they were pumping something into his torso.

"Ha… Ha… Much better." Akira slowly lowered his bloody-dripping hand before sending a reinvigorated look at Yakasha alongside a 'come at me' hand gesture. Yakasha let out a snarl and lunged at the Trickster, whose Persona pointed a finger and the demon's lower torso literally vaporized.

"GUAAAAAARGH!"

"Is that all? How boring."

"Kill me and you still cannot do anything! Your efforts will be for naught and humanity will burn for your sins! Mark my word, O **Trickster of Entropy!** "

"Hmm, nice title. I like it." Akira sent a thumb-down at the half-dead demon. "Time to die then. Demiurge, Dead End Smasher."

The Persona's eyes gleamed as it thrust the free hand forward into Yakasha's guts, blood spattering everywhere, and brought him to its eye level. Not letting the demon to scream, Demiurge repeatedly stabbed and slashed him with its sword until he was reduced to a pile of unrecognizable flesh before throwing a seemingly Concentrated Agidyne blast to incinerate it to nothingness.

"How… anticlimactic." Akira muttered, loud enough for Yukari to hear. He then turned to Minato who still bombarded the Magician Shadow with Agi and fired a shot, narrowly missing the bluenette's right ear. As expected, it stopped him from attacking the Shadow but Akira was the target now.

"He… He tanked those attacks like they are mosquito bites. Heh, I like this kid." Akihiko commented with a grin. Mitsuru let out a resigned sigh and returned to the screen.

"Heh, is that what you got?" Akira grinned at the emotionless Minato, hand reaching for the dose of Relax Gel he usually reserved whenever a party member was inflicted with Rage. Seems to him that Minato was quite pissed off. Demiurge outright repelled all Elements except Almighty, of course, but the Messiah looked fine so Akira presumed this version of Orpheus either strongly resisted, nullified or absorbed its own element.

However, Akira did not foresee the possibility of _Thanatos_ emerging from inside Orpheus, ripping apart the Persona in the process. The Embodiment of Death let out a howl and lunged at the Trickster, while Minato clutched his head and screamed in agony. Despite Demiurge nullifying Physical, Akira could feel the overwhelming strength coming from the literal enraged God of Death. He slapped the metallic helmet to create an escape window and took a leap backward.

"Takeba-san, prepare to heal Minato. I need to knock some sense into that berserk Persona."

"R-Right."

"Demiurge, Heat Riser!"

The Persona snapped its fingers as three different auras flared beneath Akira.

"Next... Um, Dark Energy?"

Akira mumbled the new skill in Demiurge's skill pool and felt a wave of nausea rushing into his brain as he struggled to maintain his pose, feeling the next attack would be tremendously powerful. He looked at the gun on his hand with worry but still aimed at the incoming Thanatos and pulled the trigger. To his astonishment, Thanatos swung its blade to intercept with the bullet and while the sword snapped in half upon collision, it continued its path toward him. Thanks to his reflex, Akira managed to dodge the enraged god and leave a huge gash on its side using his knife, having swapped with the Coonan.

"UWOOOOOOO!"

Thanatos roared at Akira, having recovered from the wound. It was about to continue its rampage when Minato could not handle the strain any longer and fell to the ground, unconscious. Death stared right at the Trickster's soul for a moment before dissolving into blue light. Akira clutched the left side of his head, trying not to scream as the pain earlier returned. Seems like the temporal fix Demiurge suggested him had gone away.

**No good! You must rest now, Trickster, lest your body will break down!**

Satanael shouted in Akira's mind as darkness claimed him as well.

* * *

As Mitsuru and Akihiko rushed to the rooftop, Ikutsuki thought of what had just happened. Possessing multiple Personas was almost unheard of, there was some rumors around Kei Nanjo but still. He would pay extra attention to Minato Arisato.

Regarding Akira Kurusu, this boy piqued Ikutsuki's interest and worry. Never had he encountered such an immensely powerful Persona user, not even _that_ child could hope reaching his level. A powerful piece on the board, yes, but an unpredictable and potentially uncontrollable piece, again just like that boy.

'Looks like I have to consider the other alternatives.'

Perhaps Ikutsuki could test the latest batch of the drug on the teen but it depended on how fast his employees could deliver under the watchful eyes of that fool Takeharu Kirijo –

**Shuji Ikutsuki…**

"A-Ah, lord Epiales! Yes, I am here at your service!"

**You shall NOT touch Akira Kurusu, as per my Master's order…**

"But he is a threat to our grand scheme! He possesses the Demiurge!"

Ikutsuki argued, zealousness oozing from his tone. The voice chuckled back.

**A Persona is ultimately a product of human kind's psyche, given shape by your individuality. The Demiurge never bows before a human, remember it well.**

"T-Then, what is my order? I will gladly do it earnestly."

**Now? You wait. You observe. When the time comes, I and my colleagues shall personally come. For the Fall.**

"Yes. Everthing is for the Fall..."

* * *

Akira felt the familiar tune of the Velvet Room and opened his eyes to find the calming blue ceiling. His chest still stung due to how aggressive he was when applying the Awakening of Unlimited on his body. True to Demiurge's words, the technique temporarily removed the limits of his existence to tremendously boost his power. But why it only lasted for like five minutes though?

**You always make mistakes in the first time. Trickster, you are supposed to just apply your fingers on your upper torso,** _**not** _ **your heart. It is a miracle that you did not perish in the first seconds.**

"Oh God this version of Yaldy sounded like a polite Morgana." Akira muttered, standing up and stretching his sore limbs.

**And what about me, me?**

"A combination of myself and a little, _just_ a little, of Sojiro." He heard Satanael snorting and his Personas went silent when Akira approached the ever patient Igor and cheerful Lavenza. The Master of Velvet Room waved his hand a comfy chair appeared for Akira to sit on.

"So, what do you want to share with me? Surely you didn't call me here just for Lavenza, right?" Akira asked the ever smiling Igor while winking at Lavenza, who became flustered.

"As interesting as your idea may be, no, I have brought you here to deliver important news. Lavenza, as you may."

"A-Ahem! Firstly, congratulation on defeating a dangerous principle of Mahakala, my Trickster. Secondly, well, there are complications regarding your existence. The _other_ complications."

Lavenza paused, seeing Akira's darkened expression and the atmosphere in the Velvet Room became suffocating courtesy of Satanael and the new addition, Demiurge. And then he smiled.

"If it's what I'm thinking, good. The less you mention Him, the better. Go on, Lavenza."

"Well then. Due to the result of time-travelling, you have accidentally created a massive Time Paradox, my Trickster. As the result, we now have two Master Igors, two Lavenzas and unfortunately, two Tricksters. Fortunately, our identical counterparts take this revelation quite well and unless Master Philemon interferes, there should be no issue even if we meet each other."

Akira rested his chin on his folded hands, absorbing the new knowledge. This was a good news, to be honest, as he did not have to worry about the 'meeting each other and one must disappear' thing in those fictional movies Futaba had shown him. Still, two Akira Kurusu was not good at all.

"Do not fret, my friend. The Trickster of this world is named 'Ren Amamiya' and he resides in the town of Inaba, unlike you who come from Hokkaido."

"Amamiya, huh… Say, Igor, what would happen if I went and taught Amamiya about our destiny?"

Igor suddenly had a frown on his aged face, which surprised Lavenza as the Master never lost his smile, even when Yaldabaoth threatened his life. He motioned the petite Attendant to come closer and they whispered for a while, leaving Akira to uncomfortably stare at them.

"There is a problem, my Trickster. We can only exist in a set period of time and once it is gone, no one will remember us. You can change certain rules but the results are still the same; the Phantoms of Time are not allowed to interfere with the current world."

"I see. First Trickster of Entropy, now the Phantom of Time." Akira laughed humorlessly. "I'm that screwed, eh?"

"Trickster…"

"It's alright. I will try to cope with this as best as I can." Akira stood up and headed to the glowing door. "See ya later, Igor, Lavenza."

The Velvet Room residents did not miss the bitter look their guest had and wondered if their decision to drag Akira into this mess was right.


	11. Chapter 11

~Chapter 8.5~

As Akira exited the Velvet Room, Igor let out a sigh and looked at the cards on his desk, which were showing a worrying result. The Trickster would die, one way or another, as the Council – as Master Philemon called them – had effectively erased Akira Kurusu from the Akashic Records and binding the remains of his soul to a biologically suitable body only delayed the inevitable. The aged Servant did not mention this to Lavenza of course, as he feared the truth would terrorize her and stray her from her duty.

Igor then realized that time had stopped, which was impossible in the Velvet Room. Lavenza was frozen in midst of reading a book brought by the Trickster. On the table, the 'World' card began to emit dark particles.

"What in the world…?"

It felt like a reversing process yet when it finished, the card looked normal and time resumed in the room. Igor nodded to himself and decided that he must consult this with Master Philemon.

In the alley below the Karaoke Bar, a humanoid Shadow was leaning against the door, having listened to the conversations behind two glowing doors. A frown slowly formed on its 'face' and it left the place as the green moon loomed above it.

* * *

"I present to you… Kasumi and Sumire Yoshizawa! Do not let their ages fool you. These twin sisters are phenomenally talented when it comes to gymnastics!"

Sumire, the redhead, struggled to calm down as the announcer dragged on. Kasumi, the one with auburn hair, patted her sister's shoulders comfortingly.

"It's alright, Sumi. We can do this." Kasumi smiled brightly. "We spent a whole week practicing for this, remember?"

"But, I keep missing a step near the end…"

"It's fine, I will try to cover that for you. C'mon, it's time for us to shine."

Despite Kasumi's assuring words, Sumire still had doubts in her abilities. After all, it was always Kasumi who outshined her in every aspect except for cooking, which Kasumi was notoriously bad. Still, they promised their coach to put up the good show and Sumire determined to put her best.

People were amazed and entranced by the sisters and when Sumire did make a misstep, a quick thinking from Kasumi saved her sister and ended the performance with a stylish finale. The crowds all stood up and showered the Yoshizawa duo with applauses.

"We did it, Sumi!"

"Yeah. Thanks for the save, Kasumi."

"We are sisters, right –"

Kasumi's eyes widened in shock as the sky became green and everyone aside her and her sister turned into coffins while the pool next to the stage they were standing on was filled with blood-like liquid. And then, they saw multiple blob creatures moving towards them.

"K-Kasumi, what are those things?!"

"I don't know. We, we have to get out of here."

Kasumi was helping a trembling Sumire back to her feet when they heard the sound of coffin opening. That was the announcer from earlier and he was dumbfounded at the new surroundings before one of the monsters jumped on him.

"No no no! Help me! Aaaargh! Kuh! AAAARGH!"

The young sisters could only watch helplessly as the announcer got devoured by the Shadow. Soon, the rest turned their attention back to them. Kasumi grabbed Sumire's hand and began to run.

"Quick! The exit is just ahead!"

"Kasumi, watch out!"

A Tiara was blocking the way to the exit door and only thanks to Sumire's warning, Kasumi narrowly dodged its fireball. But that was not enough to discourage the Shadow. It somehow spawned two more Tiaras and they encircled the twin.

A thunderous *bang* broke the atmosphere and a Tiara burst into black goo. The others were alarmed and frantically lunged at Sumire and Kasumi. The next moment they knew, the monsters followed their brethren.

"What… What just happened?"

"Jeez, what are you kids doing this late"

Sumire looked up at the light pole and saw a man? with mechanical batwings clad in red jacket and fedora, a white shirt with black tie underneath and dark pants. He was holding a large handgun whose barrel was smoking, indicating that he was indeed their rescuer.

However, upon closer inspection, Sumire skipped a breath when a demonic face with red eyes, jagged jaws and feather-like ears greeted her.

"M-Monster!"

"Huh?! What are you saying, Sumi?"

"Now now, that's not a good way to thank your savior. Though I can't blame you; this form tends to freak people out. After all, I'm a Shadow too."

The being said with a sigh before descending to the twin. Kasumi grasped and put Sumire behind her protectively.

"C'mon, don't be shy. Wait a second…" A pillar of blue flames engulfed the humanoid Shadow and the monster was gone; replacing it was young man in his 19s with frizzy hair and unnerving golden eyes. He made a dramatic spin and took his hat off before bowing at the sisters with a cheshire grin.

"Akira Kurusu, at your service."


End file.
